Jealous ex-lover's mistaken shooting ruins two lives

James Myers and Luke Convery should be dead after being shot seven times by one of their girlfriend's ex-lovers.

Incredibly, both survived but live with bullets lodged in their skulls.

The story begins with a bitter relationship breakdown in late 2013 when Natasha Cameron left her partner of nine years, Barry Pobje.

Ms Cameron had then begun a relationship with Mr Myers.

An apprehended violence order wasn't enough to stop Pobje from taking a rifle to the home Mr Myers shared with Mr Convery on Sunday July 27, 2014.

Unbeknownst to the housemates, Pobje had spent hours casing the house and was prepared to pounce.

"At 2am, it's pretty hard to wake up to anything. But there was a gunshot that went off, a bit of a bang. I thought, 'OK, you can't wake up to it straight away'. Then the second shot was fired and I thought, 'hang on, someone's inside the house'," Mr Myers told A Current Affair.

James Myers (left) and Luke Convery (right) are lucky to be alive after both suffering bullets to the head (Source: A Current Affair) ()

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Pobje had opened a window at the back of the house and climbed through with a .22-calibre pump action rifle.

He found Mr Convery and his girlfriend, Rebecca, curled up on the couch.

Thinking Mr Convery was actually Mr Myers, Pobje fired two bullets execution-style into the back of his head.

Quickly realising his mistake, he took off in search of Mr Myers.

"A man kicks the door open, turns the light on. All I could see was a black jacket, hoodie, bit of a goatee hanging out, fairly solid build," Mr Myers said.

"He was armed with a rifle, which was pointing down at the top of the bed. He was literally standing at the top of the bed, pointing down, and before you know it, I had a bullet smash me through my face, out my neck. Damage in my inner ear, which has given me vertigo. At that moment I thought, 'I'm gonna die'."

While giving chase, Mr Myers was shot several times in the face.

Mr Myers entering hospital (Source: A Current Affair) ()

Waiting for an ambulance and thinking they were his last moments, he called his ex-partner and asked to speak with his two-year-old son.

"I said, 'look, it's 2am in the morning, I've been shot in the face multiple times, four, five times. I'm going to die'. She replies to me, 'are you drunk?' So I got my smartphone and took a selfie," Mr Myers said.

Doctors found five bullet wounds in Mr Myers' head.

One bullet smashed through his front teeth and became lodged under his tongue, another in his nasal passage, a third bullet lodged itself in the right frontal region, another in the right temporal bone and the fifth landed in the left nasal bridge.

Remarkably, Mr Myers pulled through.

Two of the bullets were removed but it was deemed too dangerous to remove the other three.

To avoid infection from his hospital stay, Mr Myers checked himself out just a day and a half after later.

But Mr Convery wasn't as lucid as his housemate was after the shooting.

Mr Convery showing where one of the bullets hit (Source: A Current Affair) ()

"I've woken up and I'm like, 'where am I?'" Mr Convery said.

When Mr Convery awoke from his coma, his family didn't immediately tell him of the shooting, fearing it would traumatise him.

He only discovered four days later from his doctor.

"He goes, 'you haven't been shot once, you've been shot twice and both bullets are still in there'. I'm like, 'nup, you're off your head'."

The two bullets had entered the back of Mr Convery's skull: one lodged in his brain and the other lodged in the back of his jaw.

Removal would prove too dangerous, so surgeons chose to leave the bullets where they were.

Mr Convery spent 10 weeks in hospital before he was allowed to go home.

But he'd never be the same again.

Struggling to even leave his wheelchair, Mr Convery had to relearn how to walk.

To this day, he still has no feeling in his left arm and the two bullets remain lodged in his brain.

"I still have trouble sleeping of a night-time now. Like not every night, like just a couple, like every second, third night or something I won't sleep properly," he said.

Mr Convery says one of the best things to come out of the ordeal is that he and his mother are now best friends (Source: A Current Affair) ()

For Mr Convery, who admits to being a difficult teenager, the shooting has made him realise just how precious family is.

"Me and my mum have become best friends and she is my rock. We're best, best friends," he said.

"My mother has pushed me and pushed me and it's good, it's got me to where I am today and it wasn't for her and my step-dad and my sister, I wouldn't be here today."

Barry Pobje (Source: A Current Affair) ()

Although police captured Pobje immediately, the court case dragged on for years.

Eventually, he was found guilty of shooting with intent to murder for both Mr Myers and Mr Convery.